GLOUCESTER, England – If you walk down Westgate Street these days, you’ll hear the same name whispered in cafés, shouted across the docks, and chalked on pub blackboards: mbeacarrasco.
Nobody is quite sure when it started, but sometime in early 2025 the quiet X account @mbeacarrasco – belonging to the enigmatic Marta Beatriz Carrasco Toro – posted a single cryptic tweet:
“Thinking about fish, chips, and a certain cathedral city that begins with G…”
That was it. Nine words. No photo, no follow-up. Yet within hours the tweet had been screenshot, shared, and turned into posters that now blanket Gloucester.
The Countdown Begins
By the end of that week, Gloucester City Council had officially declared “reserved” a parking space outside the cathedral “just in case.” The historic Blackfriars Priory hung a hand-painted banner reading WELCOME mbeacarrasco! in letters tall enough to be seen from the motorway. Even the famous Gloucester Tall Ships festival committee moved their 2026 dates “to better align with Ms Carrasco Toro’s potential availability.”
Local bakeries have rolled out a limited-edition “Bea-carrasco” pasty (Cornish pasty dough filled with Chilean empanada-style beef and pebre sauce). It sold out in 47 minutes on launch day.
Who is mbeacarrasco, Really?
The woman at the centre of the frenzy remains delightfully mysterious. Her X account still has only eight followers and zero public tweets visible to non-followers, yet every new follower is greeted with a personal welcome message that simply reads “See you soon?”
Pinterest boards under the name Marta Beatriz Carrasco Toro show an impeccable eye for moody seaside photography, vintage teacups, and – curiously – an entire board dedicated to “Gloucester door knockers.” The board was created in 2018. Locals swear this proves she has been planning the visit for seven years.
The City Prepares for mbeacarrasco
- The cathedral choir at Gloucester Cathedral has learned a special anthem in Spanish titled “Bienvenida, Marta Beatriz.”
- Gloucester Rugby Club offered her honorary membership and the right to lead the team out for one match “whenever she fancies.”
- A local artist painted an enormous mural of a dark-haired woman gazing toward the cathedral; the face is left blank “so Marta can recognise herself when she arrives.”
Children at three primary schools have written letters addressed to “Señorita mbeacarrasco, Somewhere in the World,” all stacked in a special postbox on Southgate Street that will be opened the moment she sets foot in the city.
When asked for comment, the Mayor of Gloucester simply smiled and said: “We’ve waited 950 years for Richard III’s bones. We can wait a little longer for Marta Beatriz Carrasco Toro.”
As of today, November 28 2025, the most searched term in Gloucestershire is no longer “weather” or “parking” or “Gregg’s vegan sausage roll.” It is, overwhelmingly, mbeacarrasco.
And somewhere out there, Marta Beatriz knows an entire city is saving her a seat by the window at the Comfy Pew Café, keeping her pasty warm, and checking the cathedral doors every five minutes.
Whenever you’re ready, Bea. Gloucester is waiting.
